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Urban harvest

A growing number of working farms are turning unused patches of pavement into verdant fields of local produce, providing Vancouver with greater food security and healthier options.
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Sarah Common is the manager of the Hastings Urban Farm and executive director for Hives for Humanity.

Sarah Common spends most of her days getting absolutely filthy, and that’s just the way she likes it.

Whether she’s pulling potatoes or plucking tomatoes, an “average” workday for Common down at the farm consists of hours of manual labour to nurture and harvest the crops she oversees.

What makes Common’s work unique is that her farm is located in the centre of a bustling metropolis, on the 100-block of West Hastings.

At the heart of Vancouver’s most beleaguered neighbourhood, the Hastings Urban Farm is an oasis of calm. The farm is operated by the Portland Hotel Society, providing residents of the downtown Eastside not only with access to fresh produce, but work experience and a respite from the chaos of city life.

“It’s a place where everyone is welcome,” says Common, the farm’s manager. “This is a no judgment space.”

Hastings Urban Farm is one of an increasing number of working farms in Vancouver that have managed to turn unused patches of pavement into verdant fields of local produce, providing greater food security for the surrounding community.

In addition to providing low barrier employment through its honorarium program, the Hastings Urban Farm also provides workshops for local residents on how to grow and preserve their own food, and even allows them to perform their community service hours there.

“We find people are pulled in by the calm,” says Common. “[Working on the farm] is not for everyone, but we need a diversity of opportunities here.”

Despite being located along one Vancouver’s busiest thoroughfares, the half-acre plot is able to grow a wide variety of produce and herbs. Perennial crops like raspberries, blackberries, and asparagus are thriving, as are staples like herbs, garlic, chard, kale, onions, and tomatoes.

Since the farm is surrounded by tall buildings on all sides, light can be an issue, as can pests.

“The rats ate all the peppers, so we won’t be doing those again,” says Common.

For the community of which it is a part, the Hastings Urban Farm has proven to be a valuable resource. The farm has partnered with a number of community groups to provide them with locally-sourced items at little or no cost.

For the Watari Latin American Outreach Society, the farm grows tomatillo, beans, and onions; for the eartHand Gleaners Society, the farm grows flax for use in weaving; and for aboriginal residents in the area, the farm grows and dries a unique strain of ceremonial tobacco.

“We started off growing a few different varieties, but they cross-pollinated, so now it’s our own Hastings blend,” says Common.

Once harvested, much of the edible produce goes to local restaurants like Save-On-Meats or the Potluck Café.

“We pick what we have and we walk it over,” says Common. “It’s all community-based.”

While the Hastings Urban Farm’s relatively small-scale model is designed to be a social enterprise, other urban farms in Vancouver are raising produce on an industrial scale, and they want to grow even larger.

Part of its Greenest City Action Plan, the City of Vancouver’s Food Strategy aims to “enable food friendly neighbourhoods, empower residents and enhance participation, [and] improve access to healthy and affordable [food].”

The strategy’s first priority is to increase food production by providing more opportunities for urban agriculture, including community gardens and urban farms.

Currently, the city offers a host of grants and tax incentives for urban farms.

In 2011, Vancouver was home to 10 urban farms. That number increased to more than 60 urban farm sites by 2014, according to the City of Vancouver.

“Operations are increasing year after year… and there’s definitely still room for growth of urban farms in Vancouver,” says Marcela Crowe, executive director of the Vancouver Urban Farming Society (VUFS), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the sustainability of local urban farming.

Sole Food Street Farms started out on a half-acre plot at the corner of Hastings and Hawks in 2010, and has since grown to four sites, including the two-acre site adjacent to BC Place. In all, Sole Food grows produce on close to six acres of land in or near the downtown core. According to their website, by using special seeders, planting towers that make use of vertical space, and rapid crop successions that allow for immediate replanting, Sole Food’s production is estimated to be 15-25 times higher than more conventional “open field” farm plantings.

Producing food close to home means not only greater food security for Vancouverites, but healthier and more affordable options as well. Field crops are often picked unripe and shipped across the continent by truck or train, then sprayed with synthetic plant hormones to encourage ripening once they reach market.

However, farming in the city has its challenges, Crowe notes. There isn’t a lot of space that’s suitable for agricultural purposes, and what does exist is often difficult to access, due to zoning and land-use restrictions. Then there’s the pests, both human and otherwise.

VUFS is currently working with the City of Vancouver to help shape its policy on urban farming, and hopes to develop a framework that will further encourage the growth of urban farms locally.

“The city has been very supportive,” says Crowe.

It hasn’t all been rosy for Vancouver urban farms, however.

In 2012, the City of Vancouver signed a deal with Alterrus Systems Inc. to lease them the rooftop of a City-owned parkade at 535 Richards so Alterrus could build a greenhouse operation that was expected to produce 150,000 pounds a year of pesticide-free leafy green vegetables and herbs.

Alterrus filed for bankruptcy in 2014, after less than two years of operation.

Crowe contends the roof-top greenhouse technology Alterrus was using is still viable, but it has to be done right. Large-scale rural farms have access to alternative energy sources, such as biogas derived from organic waste, but small-scale city alternatives have not yet been developed.

“It will be interesting to see how we can use technology to support urban farming in the future,” says Crowe.

But while industrial scale urban agriculture is one way to improve food security, it isn’t the only way to grow food in the city.

After years of studying conservation biology and sustainable food practices, Dr. Michelle Nelson set out to prove that even apartment-dwellers could grow and forage enough food from their urban surroundings to be self-sufficient, or at least close to it.

The results of her efforts can be found in her book, The Urban Homesteading Cookbook: Forage, Farm, Ferment, and Feast for a Better World.

As an experiment, Nelson decided to raise her own livestock in her Vancouver apartment, including rabbits and quail, a decision that was driven by need to have a greater connection to where her food was coming from.

“It wasn’t easy, but I feel it was the right thing to do,” she says. “For me, it was important to be able to answer the question of what impact do my consumption choices have.”

Obviously, raising bedroom rabbits and balcony quails isn’t for everyone, Nelson admits. Beyond growing herbs and greens on your balcony or patio, there are also plenty of opportunities to forage wild plants, herbs, and greens in the city, she notes.

Invasive plants like Himalayan blackberry, Japanese knotweed, and purple loosestrife are all edible, and delicious.

“Working on eating invasive species can go a long way to controlling them,” says Nelson. “It’s certainly a better alternative to pesticides.”

Nelson has also produced a handy pocket guide for urban foragers, A Field Guide to Foraging Wild Greens and Flowers, so rookie urban foragers know what they are harvesting.

For Nelson, the idea of becoming a “locavore” is about making better, more-informed choices about where her food comes from, and what was done to it before it reached her plate.

“I think the way we think about agriculture stems from our disconnection with it,” she says. “Food is one of the most amazing things, and it’s so much better when you’ve grown it and prepared it yourself.”